@inproceedings{36b316b8702a4dd3a5150c3bc7ac21b7,
title = "The Role of Critical Zone Observatories in Critical Zone Science",
abstract = "The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has pioneered an integrated approach to the study of Earth's Critical Zone by supporting a network of Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs). The CZOs are intensively studied and monitored sites with a focus on a range of Critical Zone processes that are well represented at the various sites. The initial network (beginning in 2007) consisted of 3 CZOs, expanded to 6 in 2009, and is currently expanding to a total of 10 in 2014. The investment in financial and human resources into the CZOs has enabled a range of new scientific investigations that were not accessible under traditional funding mechanisms, and this is leading to novel and exciting advances in scientific understanding of a fundamentally important part of the Earth system.",
keywords = "Anthropocene, CZO network, Critical Zone, Critical Zone Observatories, Watershed",
author = "Timothy White and Susan Brantley and Steve Banwart and Jon Chorover and William Dietrich and Lou Derry and Kathleen Lohse and Suzanne Anderson and Anthony Aufdendkampe and Roger Bales and Praveen Kumar and Dan Richter and Bill McDowell",
note = "Funding Information: Since the initiation of conversations regarding an interdisciplinary effort to study the CZ, CZ researchers have recognized the need to engage colleagues globally. Beginning in 2007, the US NSF CZ International Scholars program funded 54 graduate and post-doctoral students to pursue CZ research in Europe. Additional students have been supported to attend training workshops in Crete and Iceland in that time frame. In Europe during 2007–2009, Critical Zone researchers were initially organized under the acronym SoilCritZone, a European Commission-funded project. That project facilitated a series of meetings and workshops that led to a report to policy makers on soil sustainability in Europe. Eventually a subset of these European researchers organized and developed a proposal to the European Commission that was funded, and the SoilTrEC project, the European counterpart to the US CZO program, began in January 2010. Back in the United States, by late 2009 the need for coordination of a variety of cross-CZO activities became necessary, and NSF funding was secured midway through 2010 to support such an effort. NSF support for US coordination of international collaborative activities, primarily between the US CZOs and the SoilTrEC project, was obtained at approximately the same time. ",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.1016/B978-0-444-63369-9.00002-1",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "9780444633699",
series = "Developments in Earth Surface Processes",
publisher = "Elsevier",
pages = "15--78",
editor = "Chris Houser and Giardino, {John R.}",
booktitle = "Developments in Earth Surface Processes, 2015",
}